The Clifton clarion., 1887-11-30
Notes Fro m San Jose.

hO oiOCpy oOooiOihOho Ol odb Jose is just now awakening from its lethargy. It is really a mod ern Canaan, stopping over with the milk and honey of its cereal and vegetable productions - the valley filled with corn, the mesa rich with cattle, the water courses raking the fields greenland all fringed round with the low-lying hills of the Plnalenos and Gila ranges, which, though scarcely as yet p respected, indicate by their characteristics an extensive zone containing large deposits of the royal minerals and to our minds comes very near realizing the pie ture drawn by Dr. Johnston in "Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia." of the happy valley in which he To- cated that fortunate youth.
 But human nature is very much the same under all conditions of existence; and after all one may exaust his vocabulary in eulogiz- ing contentment-may give it an apotheosis as the supreme and crowning venture and the one requisite for mundane happiness but the fact remains that though undoubtedly very happy trait it is a question whether it is an in- tellectual one, and were it uni versal the world would make very little progress. So we find the restless spirit of advancement making itself felt even in this primitive community, a notable example of which is the compile ton of q new and spacious church just dedicated by the Rev. Father Sheldorf; the preparations of Mir. Jose Gonzales for the plant ing of a vineyard of 10000 vines; the introduction by Mir. Furness of the Angora goat; the continued improvements by Nr. I. E. Solo mon on his large farms; the ex- tension of the San Jose ditch, and the opening up of the important quartz discoveries which have been made during the last few months at several points within the area of its unprospected mountain ranges. Work on some of these new prospects is now being commenced by Sheriff Crawford, to whom too much praise cannot be given for the assidious manner in which, in his quiet way, he is endeavoring to develope Graham's mineral stores. The Gila range does certainly af- ford an inviting field for explora- tion, for tho range has scarcely yet been touched by the pick of the prospector.
 The scenery of this region is one of weird and Dantesque beauty. The formation is gray granite, intersected with vast dikes of trachytic porphyry, while above tower lofty granite peaks, from which the shale has been weathered until they stand like grim sentinels, bare and denuded, exhibiting the most rare and fan tastic forms. Travelling is com paratively easy, the country being nothing but succession of peaks and saddles, enclosing sheltered basins, where grow the succulent grasses common to this region, ard which at this season of the year look from distance like stars of silver set in a sky of Tyrian purple, while you drink your fill of an atmosphere the purest and most temperate America can boast. And where standing amid all this undeveloped wealth you come to feel that the day is not far distant when you will see this same beloved Ari- zona of ours, clothed in the red of her vintage, the white of her sil- yer and her orange blossoms and blue of the Azure dye of her feeces, knocking at the door of Congress asking to be admitted to the sisterhood of states, and bring ing in her hand an epitome of